Food Politics

That is great news, wish it would spread industry wide.

i just read recently that something like 90% of all soybean in our country is GM and something like 60-70% of the corn.

so does this mean most all of the private label suppliers are going to have to be organic? (since so many foods / products contain either soy or corn in some form…)

im glad whole foods is doing this.

This is fantastic news. It just might make me search out a Whole Foods store in my area for those foods that have ingredients that are likely GMO.

It’s odd that WF and it’s customers care so much about this. If people eat fresh food and prepare it themselves, they don’t have to worry about GM food. It’s only packaged (processed) food where this becomes a big concern. Who cares if your unhealthy chips have GM corn in them? To me, the worst thing about GM is it’s economic impact on small farmers. While it may be controversial, there is no good evidence that GM is intrinsically evil or unsafe. I would prefer labeling in the interest of consumer choice, but when it comes to the food supply, this is the least of my concerns.

This is the greatest news I’ve heard regarding food in a while. There is hope!!! Janet, I disagree, tomatoes, which are “fresh” are often GM. I agree to stay away from processed foods completely, but say things for baking, like wheat or other staple items like rice or bread, those things have ingredients that are often GM and you don’t know. Take baking a tart. You need corn starch. It was very hard to find GM free corn starch. I did, but I live in NY. This SHOULD be mandatory. This IS a good thing.

Almost shocking – so unlike them to step to the plate about anything.

Are you sure this isn’t just for NEW suppliers? They seem to “grandfather in” their long-time suppliers, such as with products containing HFCS.

Sorry, but I believe that Whole Foods just does things in their own interest…they do not look out for their customers; they just want you to believe that.

(Used to go every week to Whole Foods…now, about 4 times a year. My closest WF seemed to turn into a Whole 365 Brands store – even eggs! And when the eggs’ only address on them is WF Texas HQ…how are we being served?)

This is great news. This should also be great news to Dole who just entered into a joint venture with Monsanto to “improve” on our fresh vegetables. You will end up future ‘terminator’ vegetable seed, meaning Monsanto will decide who gets to grow your vegetables.

@Janet Camp >> Do more research, your comment is quite inaccurate. There is quite a bit of evidence, and GM has everything to do with hard working family farms; and oddly enough, the GM in potato chips has to do with family farms. There are a number of amazing books or websites I would guide you to, but I would first recommend reading the book “FOOD INC” an absolutely amazing book for individuals seeking more information about the major depths our industrialized food has come to. This book FOOD INC (the more in-depth version of the movie), basically covers every area of the problems we have, and lets you choose which areas you might want to research further by providing a great deal of information on more in-depth research and books.

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@Jack Everitt– For those who don’t think WFM ever works in the best interest of the consumer, well, you may not be a target WFM customer: Welcome to America– companies that REALISTICLY (not like mortgage scams) give the customer what they want, survive and thrive in the marketplace.

IF a company were to create a business like Whole Foods and name it “Perfect Food Industry” with ONLY NON-GM, ONLY-ORGANIC, AND ONLY NUTRIENT DENSE FOODS, consumers would not be willing to pay for these products in a good enough volume to consider a big-box style company like whole foods. The CONSUMER has to step up to the plate and be willing to pay higher prices for their food that is less processed. What do you think would happnen if all of the sudden, the $ menu had $0 sales? Think any fast food company would keep OVER-PROCESSED $1 items on the menu?

IF Whole Foods follows through with this and start certifying NON-GMO and give it a higher price because it is worth a higher price; the consumer CANNOT complain about that higher price.

The American Industry does not cater to irrational consumers: PERFECT PRODUCT + LOW PRICE = IN BUSINESS FOR A WEEK… NOT sustainable business model.

I can’t find anything on the FDA site that points me to the FDA’s decision to forbid GM labelling. Where can I find it?

This is good news, since as Marion says, the FDA does not require labels on genetically engineered (GE) foods.

The FDA published their Policy on GE foods when Michael Taylor worked for them from 1991 to 1994, as FDA Deputy Commissioner for Policy (the same Michael Taylor who has just been appointed Senior Advisor to new FDA Commissioner Hamburg). He had previously worked for a law firm that represented Monsanto. After leaving the FDA (and USDA), Taylor returned to Monsanto.

Under Taylor, the FDA decided not to require labels on GE foods, considering them “substantially equivalent” to non-GE foods.

Here’s the FDA’s Policy Statement which Taylor signed off on:

Statement of Policy – Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties
FDA Federal Register, Volume 57, May 29, 1992

The URL for that document is:
http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/GuidanceDocuments/Biotechnology/ucm096095.htm

Here’s a part that refers to labeling:

“The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way … For this reason, the agency does not believe that the method of development of a new plant variety (including the use of new techniques including recombinant DNA techniques) is normally material information within the meaning of 21 U.S.C. 321(n) and would not usually be required to be disclosed in labeling for the food.”

@Morta Di Fame

There are no GM tomatoes in the store anywhere.

@Marion Nestle: I wonder, do you think it would be a good idea to label varieties that have traits derived through mutagenesis? Or how about those that have genes moved over through crosses with distant wild relatives, which sometimes require embryo rescue in order to germinate? Each of these techniques add new genes or drastically modify the genome, as in the case of mutagenesis, and there is no testing required of either one. (Also, as I understand it the FDA did not forbid GE labeling as you suggest, but denied the requirement for labeling.)

While I’m not an opponent of GE labeling per se, I recognize that Whole Foods’ move has more to do with maintaining a market niche than anything else. Notice that they are not requiring their producers to label anything with GE ingredients – they are requiring their producers to go through tests to verify their non-GE status. That’s not promoting consumer choice either – its Whole Foods deciding what consumers have to choose from.

Whole Foods is also on record telling their suppliers that they have to package their products in fossil fuel plastic rather than biodegradable plastics made from corn because of the GE issue. Years ago, they announced on Earth Day that they would eliminate plastic bags in favor of corn plastic bio-bags… and quietly switched back when they realized where the corn came from.

As for whether or not Whole Foods cares about its customers, to their credit they did discontinue selling things like Ear Candles when the safety of them was questioned. However, to this day they heavily market their untested and dubious food supplements to their customers, with a sales rep that wanders the “Whole Body” aisles to convince you to buy bogus remedies. Homeopathics, since they are only just water, will only hurt your checkbook, but what about the stuff that interacts with medications, or the things that serve no medical purpose but can cause some harm, like colloidial silver? That’s not ‘caring’ about customers, but caring about what customers can part with $$ for.

Ironically, the big money-maker in Whole Foods is not actual whole foods, but parts of foods dried, powdered, bottled up in agar capsules and labeled “raw”. So I’m pretty skeptical of the way that Whole Foods positions itself in the marketplace.

@Inoculated Mind: Copy & Pasting articles without citing is not creative, not intelligent and inconsiderate (to put this politely) of your readers and the author of the article. Please don’t pollute an otherwise cherished and unique blog. I won’t embarrass you and provide readers with a cite as to where paragraphs of your article came from, you know very well what parts of your article are not your words. Please respect the community of readers and contributers.

@inoculatedmind– First result on google for “GM TOMATOES”. Very accurate results by a credible website. http://tinyurl.com/lxe7uh

Re: R.Stewart:

What a very bizarre and false thing to accuse me of! I could have sworn that I wrote my comment in a span of about 10 minutes without copying and pasting from other sources. Just to see if one of my sentences was similar to something somewhere else, I put each one through Google to see where you got this notion from, and the only significant matches were to this very page. Speaking of polluting the blog… why don’t you go ahead and post the links to these mysterious articles?

Re: David Bianco:
Yes, many people know about the Flavr Savr tomato, but while the delayed ripening trait they developed was successful, the tomato was a commercial failure. (They intended to delay its ripening on the vine, and ship it, but it didn’t fare well in the shipping process.) As such, there are no Flavr Savr tomatoes grown for the supermarket, and Morta Di Fame is therefore incorrect about them being in the store.

After reading the article you linked to, I have come to the conclusion that you didn’t read it either. It explains pretty much what I have said here, confirming that there are no GM tomatoes on the market.

There is a lot of cultural mythology about genetic engineering in agriculture, I started a group blog last year to help address this issue and create a dialog on this topic. It is at http://www.biofortified.org.